38 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Ezekiel 47:13–23"
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date = "2023-07-23"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel47.13-23)
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The perspective of the vision zooms out even further now. (Well, we don't know
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what Ezekiel was seeing here, just what was described to him.) The borders of
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the whole land promised to the house of Israel are listed. Within these
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borders, the twelve tribes will be allotted equal portions of it. However, Levi
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gets a separate portion in the holy precinct, and therefore Joseph ends up with
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two portions given to his line through Ephraim and Manasseh.
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The borders as given are not easy to identify with modern places, but I can
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still imagine the consternation they would cause to modern Israel's neighbors.
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God promises to give everything between the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan
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River and Dead Sea, which would include the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip,
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but in the north may extend up as far as the area west of Damascus. For the
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south, I don't really have a clue. The Reformation Study Bible notes for this
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section mention the Wadi el-Arish as a landmark, which is apparently in the
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middle of the Sinai Peninsula.
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As the borders of Israel have been a contentious subject for about a hundred
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years at this point, I will say that I don't think the commands given in this
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chapter or the next are meant for anyone in our time. Since these boundaries
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are given after the vision of the river flowing out of the temple, I think it's
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fair to assume that those things need to happen first. While is possible for
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people to build a temple to the Lord according to the specifications given in
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previous chapters, the life-giving water is clearly the Lord's doing. Most
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likely He won't do that until Jesus Christ returns to the earth to establish
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His kingdom, and by then old political boundaries are not going to matter at
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all.
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* * *
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Your sovereignty extends throughout the ages unto eternity.
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